Crush(ing)
by The Readers Muse
Summary: She pulled out a shirt from the pile on his side of the bed. Holding it to her nose for a long moment as a small smile spread.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own CBS's "Zoo" or any of its characters, wishful thinking aside.

**Authors Note #1:** chamblerstara asked for some "Jamie/Mitch: Crush" and I am a terrible person. I also haven't written anything for this show or ship for actual years, so there's that.

**Warnings:** reference to canon appropriate violence, drama, angst, romance, pregnancy, set in an au where shortly after Mitch and Jamie reunite in season two everything goes from bad to worse and the animal apocalypse hits with a vengeance.

**Crush(ing)**

She woke up restless and star-fished in an empty bed. Like even in sleep her body had noticed his absence and punished her for it. She squinted into the dark. The numbers on the broken face of her watch mocked a ridiculously early hour. Early enough that the shape of the numbers was less a reality, and more an abstract concept to distinguish one hour from another.

Or sell better watches.

That was capitalism for you.

That was one thing she really _didn't_ miss.

Her bare toes wriggled through a gap in the sheets. Listening on reflex before she sighed, messy hair pillow-fluffed and tangled as she levered herself out of bed. It was harder than it used to be. Especially considering that all eight months pregnant of her was more on the round side these days.

_Oh well, it wasn't like she had a bikini she was supposed to be fitting into anytime soon._ _Last time she checked, going to the beach wasn't exactly_ _advisable. If you made it that far outside at all._

Still, she smiled when the baby kicked. Sleep-slow like they were making their sentiments known about how it early it was. Only quieting down when she rested her hands on her belly. Thumbing the stretched skin idly.

It hadn't been something they'd planned. It had just happened. A by-product of living fast, hard and scarce in the way of anything but the essentials. Stress had made her cycle almost impossible to track. While things like condoms and birth control had stopped meaning anything after they'd lost New York, Dallas, Atlanta, Hong Kong, Toronto, Paris, New Delhi, Tokyo, L.A, Vancouver and-

The truth was, they'd needed the closeness. Soaking it in like a sponge against fresh blood while they still could. Because nothing had been certain in those days. Every second had the possibility of ending up dead. Every minute of every day was a risk as the world ended around them in terrible, technic-color. Forced to watch as planes fell from the sky, engines burnt out by deliberate bird-strikes. Or worse, watching entire convoys of survivors disappear under a swarm of stinging insects. Killing everyone before the firetrucks could hose them free.

The only bit of good in their lives had been each other. And some days, when tempers were high and grief was cracking like a spreading sore, it wasn't even that much. _But it was human._

So yeah, it had been a surprise.

But when she'd gotten used to the idea, it had been a welcome one.

Mitch had been a different story for a long time. Too wounded not to close-up when the risk of losing something else, _someone else_, loomed. Like Clem. _Like_ _her_. Like the little question mark growing inside her.

She hadn't blamed him. And truthfully, he'd never gone far.

Instead, she'd let him sort it out inside his head, hiding in his labs.

Waiting him out until- just like she knew he would, he came back to her.

She wandered barefoot over to the bathroom. Sitting down on the toilet seat with a relieved groan as her green pajama bottoms flirted with the cold metal floor. No longer as sterile as it had been when they'd first arrived. Dotted with shucked piles of clothing and dust-bunnies.

If she hadn't already loved him, the day he'd come to her, face drawn and pale, would have been the day she'd started. It had been all there on his face, every powerful emotion he hadn't been able to express before – good and bad. But when he'd gathered her up, quietly tracing the growing curve of her, it almost hadn't mattered that the world was so messed up. That they were here, alone in this place. A forgotten government safe house with halls that rebounded only silence. Criminally safe as the rest of the world tore itself apart around them.

When the safe zones had fallen and the animals had pushed into those last few pockets of safety, everything had gone from bad to nuclear. Almost literally. As far as she knew, the White House had ordered it done – but the animals got into the hardware first. Disabling the controls all across the country before attacking the nuclear silos one by one.

She'd never gotten or wanted the chance to gloat when Reiden Global's fix-it had failed.

The cost had been high.

_Too high._

She finished on the toilet and leaned back to trip the sensor for the automatic flush. Baby pressing uncomfortably on her bladder as she winced and used the towel-rack to ease herself to her feet.

Seeing Reiden Global pay for what they'd done – for her Mom, her town, the world, all of it – had been her only goal for so long she hadn't known what to do with herself when everything had grown beyond all that, almost right from the beginning.

People had died to keep them alive.

So many she'd lost count.

She'd forgotten names. Faces. Personalities. Brave acts and last words.

She'd blanked big portions of the early days out entirely.

She knew it was wrong.

But it was how she was coping.

_It was how she was trying._

She pulled out a shirt from the pile on his side of the bed. Holding it to her nose for a long moment as a small smile spread. Finding him there thickly as a trickle of warmth arrowed up from her groin. It really didn't take much these days. She slipped it on, snuggling into the collar as she walked down the hall. Not having to guess where she'd find him.

They'd lost the others one by one.

Jackson.

Abraham.

Chloe.

Dariela.

Logan.

_More.__  
_  
It had just been the two of them by the time they made it to the compound. They were the hail mary. The world's last best chance. That what this was supposed to be. Humanity's last stand.

They had everything they needed here,

Everything to continue working on a cure.

For whatever that was worth.

Because as far as Mitch could figure, there wasn't one.

There had been once, but that opportunity had passed them by a long time ago.

It was over.

_The fight was over._

Now it was a matter of learning how to deal with what came next.

Understanding the change.

The animals had evolved. And in order to stay alive, they had to do the same.

She paused in front of the fire-proof glass, watching him through the floor to ceiling windows. Delighted when she realized the shirt he was wearing was just a bit too small. Rucking up to show the soft flat of his belly whenever he leaned in, looking down the microscope. She let her hand rest on her stomach, smiling when it earned her a lazy kick. Giving him a little wave when he looked up and grinned at her – nodding for her to join him.

Defeat could be crushing.

But hope? Well, some days she swore it could end up being some sort of cure.

* * *

**A/N:** Thank you for reading, please let me know what you think. This story is now complete.


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